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Japanese Grammar Notes

The document discusses some key differences between Japanese and English grammar structures. Japanese follows a Subject-Object-Verb word order while English is Subject-Verb-Object. It also notes that Japanese nouns do not have gender or definite/indefinite articles. Compound nouns are formed by joining two nouns with the particle "no". Pronouns in Japanese include "watashi" for I/me and "anata" is rarely used, instead using the person's name. Questions are formed by adding the particle "ka" at the end of a sentence.

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320 views3 pages

Japanese Grammar Notes

The document discusses some key differences between Japanese and English grammar structures. Japanese follows a Subject-Object-Verb word order while English is Subject-Verb-Object. It also notes that Japanese nouns do not have gender or definite/indefinite articles. Compound nouns are formed by joining two nouns with the particle "no". Pronouns in Japanese include "watashi" for I/me and "anata" is rarely used, instead using the person's name. Questions are formed by adding the particle "ka" at the end of a sentence.

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Seph
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Word Order

Japanese is a Subject-Object-Verb language as compared with English which is a


Subject-Verb-Object language.
Torako wa neko desu.
Torako is a cat. (Literally, "Torako as for cat is.")

Torako ga nezumi o mimashita.


Torako saw a mouse (Literally, "Torako [subject] mouse [object] saw.")

A sentence is made into a question by placing the particle ka at the end.


Torako ga nezumi o mimashita ka.
Did Torako see a mouse?

Nouns

Japanese nouns do not have gender, they may not be modified by definite or
indefinite articles because none exist in Japanese, and the singular and plural forms
are usually the same. In romaji the names of persons and places are capitalized as
are the names of languages except English (eigo).
hon book, books, a book, the book, the books
For nouns referring to people, the suffix -tachi may be used to indicate the plural.
kodomo child, children kodomotachi children

Tanaka san tachi Mr. Tanaka and his family or others

Japanese give the family name first followed by the given name.
Tanaka Hiromi Hiromi Tanaka
The suffix -ya means the store where the objects are sold or the person who sells
them. The suffix -ka means a person who is is an expert or specialist in the
designated subject.
hana flower hanaya flower shop, florist

niku meat nikuya butcher shop, butcher

shisetsu novel shisetsuka novelist

When referring to a clerk or shopkeeper, the honorific san is used.


honya san bookstore clerk, bookseller
Two nouns used together as a compound noun are joined by the particle no.
nihongo no kurasu Japanese language class

apato no biru apartment building

Pronouns

watashi I, me watashitachi we, us


anata you anatatachi you
kare he, him karera they, them
kanojo she, her kanojotachi they, them
ano hito that person ano hitotachi those persons

Avoid using anata whenever possible, and use the person's name with san instead.
Similarly, when referring to a third person, use the person's name.

Sumisu san wa eigo o mimashita ka.


Did you (Mr. Smith) see the movie?

Tanaka san wa nani o kaimashita ka.


What did she (Mrs. Tanaka) buy?

The indefinite pronouns are the following:

dareka someone daremo no one


doreka something doremo nothing
dokaka somewhere dokomo nowhere
nanika something nanimo nothing
ikuraka some, a little ikuramo not much
nandemo anything nannimoVnothing

The negative indefinite pronouns take a negative verb.

Dareka kimashita.
Someone came.

Daremo kimasen deshita. No one came.

The one reflexive pronoun is jibun (myself, yourself, etc.).

Jibun de hatarakimasu. I am working by myself.

There are no relative pronouns in Japanese, and the relative clause precedes the
word it modifies.
Asoko ni suwatte iru wakai josei wa musume desu.
That young lady sitting over there is my daughter.

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